Elizabeth Jane Mcmahon

Elizabeth Jane McMahon, PhD

Liz McMahon, clinical psychologist, wife, mother, and devoted grandmother, died on October 23 from non-smokers lung cancer. She will be sorely missed by all who knew her, especially her three-year-old grandson Mickey.

Liz was born in Burlington Vermont to Mickey (Edmund Brown) McMahon and Elizabeth Simms McMahon on October 19, 1950. She lived in multiple towns along the east coast while her father finished his medical training and pursued his career as a Navy obstetrician. Liz, or Betsy as she was called at that time, graduated from Walter Johnson High School in Bethesda, Maryland in 1968.

She started college at University of Vermont but dropped out and worked for the Children's Aid Society in Philadelphia for a while. With a new sense of direction she earned a BA in Psychology from Earlham College and her MA and PhD in Psychology from Case Western Reserve University. She completed a Pre-Doctoral Fellowship at University of Virginia Medical Center and a Post-Doctoral Residency at the Sheppard-Pratt Psychiatric Hospital in Baltimore.

While interviewing for graduate school in 1974, Liz met Chuck Ehrlich. Their relationship was on and off while Liz completed her training and Chuck moved for his work. In 1980 Liz relocated to San Francisco to be with Chuck and they married on her birthday. Their daughter, Laura, was born in 1983.

Also in 1980, Liz joined Kaiser Permanente as a clinical psychologist. She worked at Kaiser in Fremont California for over 30 years providing outpatient psychotherapy, training postdoctoral residents, and developing treatment programs. Following her retirement from Kaiser in 2013, she opened a private practice in San Francisco specializing in anxiety issues, including the therapeutic use of Virtual Reality. Starting in 2010, Liz pioneered the use of VR in psychotherapy and became an expert on VR therapy for anxiety.

During her career Liz also served as a leader and teacher for many professional organizations including the American Psychological Association (APA), American Society of Clinical Hypnosis (ASCH), Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA), Association of Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies (ABCT), California Psychological Association (CPA), National Lymphedema Network (NLN), PESI, San Francisco Academy of Hypnosis (SFAH), San Francisco Psychological Association (SFPA), and the Stanford Psychiatry Immersive Technology Consortium (SPIT-C). She also helped write and administer the California psychology licensing examinations for many years.

Liz wrote several books including Overcoming Anxiety and Panic Interactive Guide (Hands-on-Guide 2019), Virtual Reality Therapy for Anxiety: A Guide for Therapists (Rutledge 2021), and Overcoming the Emotional Challenges of Lymphedema (Lymph Notes 2005). Additionally she coauthored several other books and multiple articles.

Liz is survived by her mother Betty McMahon, sisters Patricia Rice, Nancy Dykstra, Mary Schultz, and Andrea Kuzela, husband Chuck Ehrlich, daughter Laura Elizabeth Ehrlich, son in law Sean Smith, and grandsons Wesley Smith and Mickey (Edmund McMahon) Smith.

Donations in her honor may be made to San Francisco Chronicle Season of Sharing Fund, Planned Parenthood or Earlham College.